Current account

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Oct 25, 2006, 12.00 AM IST

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United forces

Banks are increasingly going for an integrated treasury and combining the dealing rooms for the money and foreign exchange markets. With most banks having achieved this physical integration, there is now a clamour for synchronising the timings for the various markets.

As of now, the foreign exchange market is open 24 hours, except in the weekend, although officially it is only between 9 am and 5 pm. The money market, which includes call money and bonds, is open from 9 am to 5.30 pm on weekdays and on Saturday only the call money market is open up to 3.30 pm. Then there is the stock market, which is open from 9.55 am to 3.30 pm for five days.

Fall from grace

The Siyaram group, which is remembered for its big budget advertising campaign featuring celebrities such as Boris Becker several years ago has failed to service bank loans. ICICI Bank has now sold its loans to Kotak Mahindra Bank to clean its balance sheet. Kotak, in turn, has recently received a Debt Recovery Tribunal order to attach some of the promoters’ property, which includes a spacious flat owned by the Poddars, the promoter, in south Mumbai valued at about Rs 3 crore.

Follow the regulator

The central business district of Worli appears to be the destination of choice for investment bankers after Sebi moved out of south Mumbai. Not only start-ups but even existing firms are relocating from south Mumbai. Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and Barclays are setting up shop in the same building - CJ House - where rentals are as high as Rs 350 per sq ft.

Others like Citi are also rumoured to be looking at taking an office space in the same building. With all this clustering, employers would find it easier to poach from one another particularly players like Lehman which are ready to offer what it takes.

Situation vacant

The government may take a little longer to fill the chairman’s post at Sidbi, for it has yet to identify the right candidate. Despite small industries being the flavour of the season among lenders and policy makers, the post has been vacant since ex-chief N Balasubramanian retired on September 30.

We now hear that interviews for the post will be held by the end of this month. Given that after the short listing candidates have to go through CVC and PMO clearance, it could be quite a while before the new candidate takes his seat.

Gift ideas

ICICI Bank is never the one to turn down an opportunity. This Diwali, when banks prepared to down their shutters for an extra long weekend, ICICI Bank saw an opportunity in the consumer spending frenzy. Adding to the traffic congestion in mobile network were millions of text messages from the bank offering personal loans. A typical message read: Season’s greetings. You are pre-approved for a personal loan of Rs 1,51,795, walk into any ICICI Bank branch and get a personal loan in 30 minutes.

Undue advantage

Credit card holders who presume that the due date of payment on their card statements is just that may end up paying through their noses. A foreign bank has been drawing its customers’ ire for billing them for late payment even after cheques were deposited on the due date.

The bank’s logic for the late fees was that it sometimes takes three to four days for a local cheque to be cleared and credited to the bank’s account. Given the long stretch of Diwali holidays this month there could be a lot of late payment fees charged to those whose payment falls due during Diwali.